Fruitful Vitamins

In a nutshell… 

• Post loan support can guide you through assessing your strengths and finding the right partners to fill skills gaps, as well as exploring your funding readiness. 

• Access to mentoring can better prepare owners to face early business challenges, from legal structure and compliance to customer acquisition and scaling. 

Talia Skorge is the co-founder of Fruitful Vitamins, a range of pre-conception and conception supplements for men and women. Although she and her husband, Graham, had already built two successful nutrition brands, launching Fruitful Vitamins brought a whole new challenge. 

“With our other businesses, we were used to selling B2B through a distributor,” Talia explains. “We assumed the same model would work with Fruitful, but the feedback from retailers told a different story.” 

Unlike their previous products, Fruitful Vitamin’s supplements needed a more considered sales approach, which opened up ecommerce as a new opportunity. But for Talia and Graham, it was an area they had never worked in before. 

“We knew we were out of our depth and needed expert support,” says Talia. “Our Post Loan Support mentor helped us see that building a consumer-facing brand would require a totally different mindset and skillset.” 

With guidance from mentor Franceska Jones, they identified the gaps in their knowledge and agreed they needed to bring in external digital marketing support. Franceska worked with them to clarify their expectations, and they shortlisted a number of agencies before finding a perfect fit. 

Talia continues: “Our mentor helped us sense-check each stage of the process. We chose an agency that really understood our values – they weren’t just chasing likes or followers, they were focused on return on investment.” 

Now, Talia and Graham are building a fully-fledged consumer brand with a clear digital strategy and strong agency partner. They’ve also started planning their next stage of growth. 

“We’ve been working with our mentor on investment readiness,” Talia adds. “We’re clearer on the type of investor we’re looking for, and the story we need to tell. We’re excited about the future of all three of our brands.” 

Start Up Loan recipients who access additional mentoring are better prepared to face early business challenges, from legal structure and compliance to customer acquisition and scaling. Research from the British Business Bank shows that businesses receiving post-loan support are more likely to grow and survive longer. 

If you’ve received a Start Up Loan, you could be eligible for free mentoring through the Post Loan Support programme, helping you plan, grow and thrive with expert support.